Labour prospects in May elections may be irrevocably damaged by Birmingham Council’s costly refusal to settle the year-long dispute, warns STEVE WRIGHT
Remarkable German peace initiative calls for rapid negotiations
In an open letter, leftwingers are calling on Chancellor Scholz to step up efforts to mediate a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. What are we waiting for in other Western countries to launch a similar initiative, asks MARC VANDEPITTE
A girl pets her cat in the yard of her house in Bohoyavlenka, Ukraine
HENRY FOWLER and ROB POOLE explain the significance of today’s Megapicket
One hundred years after 1.7m workers shut the country down in defence of the miners, the struggles that sparked the 1926 General Strike are still with us – and will be honoured on London’s May Day march this year, writes MARY ADOSSIDES
The Labour Growth Group and its think tank partner, the Good Growth Foundation, have taken funding from major lobbying firms linked to housebuilders, banks and Heathrow – raising questions about corporate influence at the heart of Starmer’s pro-growth project. SOLOMON HUGHES reports
The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and union member, has sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls from National Nurses United to dismantle Ice and related agencies, says MARK GRUENBERG
A Vatican photo-op, a hard-right donor and a rhetoric of mass deportations reveal how appeals to ‘Christian values’ are being reshaped by Reform and Tory MPs, says SOLOMON HUGHES
FORMER senior SPD politicians, union members and well-known representatives of the peace movement have called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz in an open letter to urge urgent negotiations to end the fighting in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. (The full letter can be found below.)
The war has degenerated into “bloody trench warfare in which there are only losers,” according to the letter.
It is crucial to stop the escalation of the war. “With each passing day, the danger of an expansion of hostilities grows. The shadow of nuclear war hangs over Europe. The world must not slip into another major war.”
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The federal government’s plans to finance the war in Ukraine with Russian assets, and a possible deployment of German troops, put the population in Germany in the highest danger, argues SEVIM DAGDELEN
In the first half of a two-part article, PETER MERTENS looks at how Nato’s €800 billion ‘Readiness 2030’ plan serves Washington’s pivot to the Pacific, forcing Europeans to dismantle social security and slash pensions to fund it
By honestly telling Ukraine that it will not become a Nato member, Trump and Hegseth have opened the door to a possible end to the conflict but have also altered the political dynamic on both sides of the Atlantic, write MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS JS DAVIES